Wife . Mommy . Lover of all things Shiplap.

The First 7 Things I Learned From Our IKEA Kitchen Build…

So one thing ya’ll need to get right now is I have an insane obsession with IKEA… I love that place. Just warnin ya. The love runs deep.

I spent 3 hours there my first trip. I went through it twice. I feel like I missed things.

It took three more trips, with the boy and Tenley this time, to convince him that this would be our perfect kitchen. That I could get everything I wanted out of a kitchen with these cabinets.

Tenley was obviously convinced…

Who wouldn’t swoon over this??? Seriously!

Having a kitchen that is 90% drawers is pricey. On average our bids from cabinet and kitchen shops in our area were 35-40% higher.

I wanted that money for other things. So it was time for sweat equity.

Here are the first 7 things I learned from our IKEA kitchen build:

Prep more than you did for your ACT/SAT/PHD/CPA/and ADULTHOOD combined!

Do not think you will go there one time and sit at the desk and design your kitchen and be out in an hour. If you do. Then good for you. But no one is giving you a medal cause you just a show off and you probably forgot a shelf and you’re going to look stupid putting your cabinet together with no support shelf………… WOAH! got that out of my system.

Practice the layout online in the tool and have it ready when you get to the store.

Make friends with an IKEA Kitchen Planner Employee. They will not catch everything- and neither will you- but once you’ve been through it more than once you will have it narrowed down.

Buy during a Kitchen EVENT! We saved 20% when we purchased during a Kitchen event. They usually run at least twice a year around March/April and July/August.

Organize, Organize & Organize some more…

However you organize- ORGANIZE… and if you are not an organizer then keep reading cause you going to need to start.

For me- it was a binder with the following tabs:

Floorplan-with locations of plumbing and lighting.

Drafts– chronological lists of the kitchen drafts in order with newest on top- I never threw away the old until the plan was locked down- and the online editor lets you duplicate the plans so you can keep the old ones incase you need to go backwards without redoing it all.

Must-Haves- Make a registry of all the items you want in your cabinets now or in the future. This way you can plan the cabinets with the capabilities and acquire them as you go or all at once. IKEA Registries are free and online so two birds/one stone when your Housewarming Party comes around!

Reciepts- Keep them all. You can look them up if they are lost but it is so much easier as always to keep these receipts.

Team Work Makes the Dream Work

Our kitchen has a total of 23 cabinets- that was 234 total boxes weighing 3,211 lbs… DID YOU COMPREHEND THAT! Still blows my mind. Get a buddy- Husband, wife, sister, mother, cousin, neighbor -who doesn’t mind lifting and organizing and buy them a present-

Take advantage of IKEA delivery- It was $79 to deliver and for us this was completely worth it- Renting a Uhaul or your own trailer and moving it again- nope. This allows you to also cut down on your time in store. Let them deliver it to your site, or storage unit in our case.

“You can’t eat an elephant in one bite”

As I mentioned before Prep is of the utmost importance- and rushing is not going to help you. Don’t jump into the boxes and start building.

Your kitchen will print in a sheet organized by Cabinet number. Organize your boxes by Cabinet. (I.E. put all of cabinet 3 boxes in a pile and write on them the cabinet number.)

Only once you’ve given every box a home should you start building.

Pretend you are a kindergartener and READ ALL INSTRUCTIONS FIRST.

I feel like this should be stapled to every box- in huge red letters.

Once you have all the boxes organized into their cabinet number READ-THE-DIRECTIONS. every cabinet base will most likely go together the same way but the way you put the drawers and doors on may differ. You don’t want to have change the screws around 5 times. Measure twice cut once/ read twice assemble once.

Give Yo’self Some Space-

Don’t build in the exact same space you’re installing- you will have to hang the suspension rail and having cabinets in the way will just make you mad.

Layout the cardboard from the first couple boxes you open on the floor as a padding.

Build in the order they are being installed. Corners will go in first. And Uppers before Lowers.

The tall cabinets can be heavy! Use your buddy and dont try lifting anything yourself because it will bind up the cabinet and you’ll be redoing the work.

Trust your judgement, and the exchange lady at the friendly IKEA counter

The IKEA returns/exchange counter is a magical place. They really are the best.

If you’re putting a cabinet together and it feels like is not what you want they will take back ANYTHING! They will exchange completely built cabinets or cabinets in a box! They do not care. They want your purchase to be right and they will help anyway they can. DISCLAIMER: As with all customer service you can get employees that do not care- ask for someone else- they will not want you to leave unhappy.

This was everything we learned before even INSTALLING the darn things. I could write a book.